Business plan for an investor · Warsaw and all of Poland
A business plan for an investor that survives due diligence
We prepare a business plan for an investor together with the financial model and the valuation logic. A document where the market, the unit economics and the use of the round hold together, and where every assumption can be defended in the room with a fund or an angel.
No obligation. Scope and quote are set after the first call, once the stage of the company and the purpose of the round are clear.
- Lead time
- 3 to 5 weeks
- Who it is for
- B2B companies with first revenue
- Audience
- angel, VC fund, strategic investor
- Languages
- EN · PL · UA
Last updated: August 2026
Business plan for an investor in short
A business plan for an investor answers one question: why this money is worth more inside this company than anywhere else. A bank asks about safety, an investor asks about return. So a document written for a fund is built around the market, the growth rate and the unit economics rather than around collateral.
- When it is needed
- a seed or pre-A round, a strategic investor coming in, or a sale of shares
- How long it takes
- usually 3 to 5 weeks including the financial model
- What the investor gets
- a 25 to 40 page document, a model in a spreadsheet and a deck for the meeting
- What decides the meeting
- market size, unit economics and the credibility of the team
- Forecast horizon
- 3 to 5 years, with the first 12 months broken down monthly
- Who we work with
- B2B companies in Warsaw and across Poland, including foreign-owned entities
01Basics
What is a business plan for an investor?
A business plan for an investor is the document that justifies the valuation and shows how a funding round converts into company value. It is not the same job as a document for a bank. A bank assesses the risk of not being repaid and reads the conservative case. An investor buys a share of the company's future, so they read the market, the growth rate and what happens if the plan works.
Definition
A business plan for an investor is a document prepared for an equity round that describes the market problem, the business model and the company's advantage, presents a 3 to 5 year financial forecast together with unit economics, defines the purpose and structure of the round, and sets out the exit path for the investor.
Bank, grant, investor: three different documents
The same company needs three different documents, because each reader is grading something else. It is worth settling this before any writing starts.
| Reader | Asks about | Scenario they read | Key section |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank | Whether it recovers capital with interest | conservative and downside | cash flow and security |
| Grant committee | Whether the project meets criteria and indicators | compliant with the call rules | eligibility and results |
| Equity investor | How much they can make and how they exit | base and upside | market, economics, valuation |
If you are after debt or non-repayable funding, separate routes lead there: a business plan for a loan and a business plan for EU grants.
02Assessment
What does an investor read first?
An investor skims the document in about fifteen minutes, looking for a reason to say no. A fund screens hundreds of companies a year and selection is elimination rather than choosing. So a business plan for an investor has to survive the first pass before anyone opens the financial model.
| Element | What the investor looks for | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Problem and market | A real, expensive problem and a market size that has been calculated | "An 8 billion euro market" with no named segment the company can reach |
| Traction | Revenue, customers, retention, repeatability of sales | Letters of intent and conversations, no signed contract |
| Unit economics | Margin, customer acquisition cost, payback period | A model where margin rises but the cost base does not move |
| Team | Who has actually delivered something similar, and what is missing | Advisers and mentors presented as the team |
| Use of the round | Where the money goes and which milestone it unlocks | "Growth and marketing" with no breakdown and no measure |
| Valuation and structure | Justified valuation, dilution, shareholder rights | A multiple with no comparable transactions behind it |
Order matters. If the first two pages do not explain what problem the company solves and for whom, the rest of the document usually goes unread.
03Structure
What should a business plan for an investor contain?
A complete business plan for an investor has eight parts, and the financial model is a separate file rather than a table buried in the text. Below is the structure of a business plan for an investor we use for seed and pre-A rounds and for a strategic investor coming in.
01
Summary and investment thesis
One page: problem, solution, traction, size of the round and what it unlocks. Everything else only proves it.
02
Problem and market
Who has the problem, what it costs them, and how large the segment the company can realistically reach in three years is.
03
Product and business model
What the company sells, to whom, on what cycle and how it makes money. No technology description for its own sake.
04
Traction and evidence
Revenue, customer count, retention, pipeline and what has changed over the last twelve months.
05
Competition and advantage
An honest map of alternatives, including "the customer does nothing", and what is hard to copy.
06
Forecast and unit economics
A 3 to 5 year forecast derived from customer counts and prices, not from a growth percentage typed in by hand.
07
Use of round and milestones
The amount broken down by line, the runway it buys, and the result the company reaches before the next round.
08
Team, structure and exit
Who does what, the cap table after the round, shareholder rights and realistic exit scenarios.
On top of the document sit the financial model in a spreadsheet with visible assumptions, and a short deck for the meeting. Investors work through all three in parallel, which is why all three have to show the same numbers.
04Readers
Types of investor and what they expect
We write a business plan for an investor against one specific type of capital, because an angel, a VC fund and a strategic buyer apply different criteria over different horizons. Before we start we settle who the document is addressed to, and the emphasis of the whole narrative follows from that.
| Investor type | Company stage | What they weigh most | Horizon |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business angel | pre-revenue or just after first sales | The team, the rate of learning, the first customers | 5 to 7 years |
| VC fund | seed and Series A, after repeatable sales | Market size, growth rate, unit economics | 5 to 10 years |
| Strategic investor | an established company | Synergies, access to customers, technology or team | open-ended or until integration |
| PE or financial investor | a profitable company with repeatable EBITDA | Stability of results, leverage, cash generation | 3 to 6 years |
A significant share of Polish VC capital comes from public programmes, including funds backed by PFR Ventures. That has a practical consequence: those funds carry their own eligibility criteria, and the document has to take them into account. Support programmes are also listed by PARP.
05Numbers
The financial model and valuation logic
In a business plan for an investor, valuation is not a number typed at the end, it is a conclusion drawn from the model and from comparable transactions. In the business plan for an investor we show where every assumption comes from, so that the discussion in the meeting is about assumptions rather than about whether the file can be trusted at all.
What the model contains
- Sales built bottom up. Customer count times price times repeatability, not a growth percentage stapled onto last year.
- Unit economics. Margin per customer, acquisition cost, payback period and customer lifetime value.
- Costs split fixed and variable. With an explicit hiring plan, since in service and technology companies that is the main line.
- Cash flow and runway. How many months of operation the round buys under three growth scenarios.
- Cap table. Dilution after the round, the option pool for the team and the effect of the next round.
- Sensitivity. What happens to the result when sales come in 30 percent slower or acquisition cost rises by half.
Where the valuation comes from
At an early stage valuation is the outcome of a negotiation, not an arithmetic operation. It can still be anchored in three things: multiples from comparable transactions in the same market, discounted cash flows for a more mature company, and the size of the round combined with an acceptable level of dilution. An honest document shows all three and says plainly which one carries the most weight here.
A sales forecast is credible exactly to the extent that a real sales process stands behind it. So for growth rounds we work in parallel on B2B sales development, and for plans that involve new markets on market expansion strategy.
06Data
What data to prepare before we start
The more hard data there is, the less the document rests on statements of intent. Below is the input set for a business plan for an investor that we ask for after the first call. Much of it ends up in the data room during due diligence anyway.
| Group | What exactly | Why the investor needs it |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Monthly revenue for 12 to 24 months, customer list, contract values and terms | Checking repeatability and the real growth rate |
| Customers | Retention, churn, acquisition cost, acquisition channels | The basis of unit economics and of the forecast |
| Financials | Statements for 2 to 3 years, cost structure, current debt | The starting point of the model and the risk picture |
| Company | KRS entry, articles of association, cap table, shareholder agreements | Assessment of ownership structure and investor rights |
| Team and product | Headcount structure, product roadmap, intellectual property | Assessment of the ability to execute the plan |
Where something is missing we say so in the document rather than working around it. The investor will find it in due diligence anyway, and a gap discovered there costs far more than one admitted up front.
07Mistakes
7 mistakes that end the conversation with an investor
Most documents fall over not because the business is weak but because the assumptions cannot be defended. Below are the seven that recur most often in a business plan for an investor, and how to remove each of them.
- Market sized top down. "A multi-billion market, we only need one percent." Fix: calculate the segment the company actually reaches through its own sales channel, and show the path into it.
- A hockey stick forecast. Flat for two years, then a sharp rise that happens to coincide with the round. Fix: derive growth from customer counts, team capacity and the sales cycle.
- No unit economics. The document talks about scale but never shows whether a single customer is profitable. Fix: margin, acquisition cost and payback on one page.
- Use of the round with no breakdown. "Growth and marketing." Fix: the amount broken down by line, tied to milestones, with runway stated in months.
- Competition described as an absence of competition. A table where the company scores on every row. Fix: an honest map of alternatives including "the customer stays on a spreadsheet".
- Valuation with no justification. A multiple lifted from another market at another scale. Fix: comparable transactions, a range rather than a single number, and a stated method.
- Document, model and deck disagreeing. Three files, three different revenue figures. Fix: one source of truth in the model, with everything else derived from it.
Fixing these seven things does not change the business, but it changes how the business is read. In practice most of the work on a business plan for an investor is ordering the assumptions rather than writing the text.
08Process
How the work runs
A business plan for an investor is built in five steps and usually takes 3 to 5 weeks. Most of that time goes into the financial model and into agreeing assumptions, because those are what the conversation with the fund will be about.
Step 01 · 3 to 5 days
Purpose of the round
We establish how much capital the company needs, what for, from whom and on what terms. This is also where it becomes clear whether a round is the right instrument at all.
Step 02 · 5 to 8 days
Data, market and traction
We order the sales and financial data, size the reachable segment and verify the evidence of traction.
Step 03 · 7 to 10 days
Financial model
We build the model bottom up with unit economics, three scenarios, runway and the effect of the round on the cap table.
Step 04 · 5 to 8 days
Document and deck
We write the plan and compress it into a deck, so that all three materials show the same numbers.
Step 05 · during meetings
Preparing for the room
We work through the hardest questions an investor will ask and prepare answers backed by data.
What we do not do
We do not broker capital
We are not a broker or an investment adviser and we take no commission on capital raised. We are accountable for the document and the numbers.
09Clients
Who we write these documents for
We work with B2B companies that have first revenue and a real product, not with an idea on a slide. The office is in Warsaw and we work remotely with companies across Poland.
- B2B companies past their first repeatable sales, raising a seed or pre-A round to accelerate growth.
- Industrial, construction and energy companies looking for a strategic investor or project financing.
- Foreign-owned companies recapitalising a Polish subsidiary. Here we usually combine the document with a Polish market entry analysis.
- Shareholders preparing a sale of shares or the entry of a new partner into an existing company.
- Boards heading into due diligence who want the numbers in order before the investor gets to them.
We do not write documents for projects with no product and no customers, or materials for public capital raises. If the company needs an internal plan rather than a document for an investor, the right place is a business plan for a sp. z o.o.
10Author
Who writes these documents at the nech
11FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How much does a business plan for an investor cost?
The quote depends on the stage of the company, the scope of the financial model and whether a deck is needed as well. We give a fixed price in PLN after the first call, once the purpose of the round and the state of the data are clear. The first call is free and carries no obligation.
How long does it take?
A business plan for an investor usually takes 3 to 5 weeks including the financial model. The longest part is ordering the sales data and agreeing assumptions. Where a company already has clean reports and a model it can be faster.
Do you help find the investor?
We do not broker capital and we take no commission on a round. We are accountable for the business plan for an investor, the model and the preparation for meetings. We will say which type of capital fits the stage and the model of the company.
Do you also prepare the pitch deck?
Yes. The deck is the natural short form of a business plan for an investor and is usually built alongside it. What matters is that the deck, the plan and the model show the same numbers, because investors do compare them.
How do you calculate the valuation?
We show a range rather than one number, and we state the method: multiples from comparable transactions, discounted cash flows for a more mature company, and the approach from round size and acceptable dilution. The final valuation comes out of a negotiation, and the document exists to anchor it in data.
How is this different from a document for a bank?
A bank reads the conservative case, cash flow and security, because it wants its capital back with interest. An investor reads market, growth and valuation, because they are buying a share of the future. The same company needs two different documents. The bank's requirements are covered on the business plan for a loan page.
How many years should the forecast cover?
Three to five, with the first year broken down monthly. A longer horizon at an early stage is a work of fiction rather than a forecast, and experienced investors treat it that way.
Is a document enough if the company has no revenue yet?
Before first revenue the burden of proof shifts to the team, to evidence of demand and to the cost of testing the hypotheses. Such a document can be written, but we say plainly that the conversation then involves angels and the earliest stage funds rather than a classic seed round.
Do you work with companies outside Warsaw?
Yes. Our office is in Warsaw and we meet Mazovia clients in person, while working remotely with companies across Poland. Work on the financial model can be run entirely remotely.
Which languages do you write in?
English, Polish and Ukrainian. For foreign funds the English version is the primary one, with a Polish version produced for shareholders and the supervisory board. Terminology and figures stay consistent across versions.
12Sources
Sources and further reading
- PFR Ventures: the fund of funds behind a large share of VC capital in Poland.
- PFR Group, investments in VC funds: programme description and criteria.
- PARP: support programmes for companies at growth stage.
- biznes.gov.pl: corporate formalities and obligations in Poland.
Related pages
Service overview
Business plan Warsaw Every type of business plan and a comparison of who reads them.Bank
Business plan for a loan What the credit analyst checks and how the financing structure works.Grants
Business plan for EU grants Cost eligibility, result indicators and the logic of a funding call.Strategy
Business strategy The direction the forecast shown to an investor follows from.Sales
B2B sales development The sales process that makes the forecast credible in the first place.Scope
All services Strategy consulting, expansion and market analysis for B2B companies.Invitation
Raising a round and need a document that holds up?
Let us talk about the stage of the company and the purpose of the round. On the first call we establish which type of capital fits, what scope of document is needed and what is missing from the data before a business plan for an investor can survive due diligence.
We reply within 24 business hours. The first call is free and carries no obligation.